Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine, was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie, although he did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth22 December 1639
CountryFrance
I will die if I lose you, but I will die if I wait longer.
Too much virtue can be criminal.
Honor, without money, is a mere malady.
I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him.
I have loved him too much not to hate
Me, rule? Me, place the State under my law, when my feeble reason no longer rules even myself!
You who love wild passions, flee the holy austerity of my pleasures. All here breathes of God, peace and truth.
Ah, why can't I know if I love, or if I hate?
Wrinkles on the brow are the imprints of exploits.
Felicity is in possession, happiness in anticipation.
I loved you when you were unfaithful; what would I have done if you were true?
I felt for my crime a just terror; I looked on my life with hate, and my passion with horror.
Often it is fatal to live too long.
The face of tyranny Is always mild at first.